Smithsonian Channel

Some used captivating style to boost diplomacy. Some offered compassionate calm in days of war. Some embraced the role they never expected to make a difference. And some seized the role they always dreamed of to blaze a trail.

The biggest movie and TV franchise of all time, Star Trek spawned more than 700 TV episodes and twelve films. Creator Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future helped inspire today's scientists to develop the first scientific principles of teleportation, the creation of artificial intelligence, androids, and more. Now, scientists, series producers, the first Trekkies, and Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, provide new insights into a show that inspired audiences...

The Hollywood blockbuster movie captivated audiences worldwide while outraging the Catholic Church. Its plot line, suggesting Jesus was married and fathered children, is presented as fact but how much of the movie is really true? Join our team of real-life code breakers, Renaissance experts, and professors of religion and language as we uncover the truth behind this controversial film.

"They are the most iconic animals on Planet Earth - voracious crocodiles, acrobatic birds, majestic elephants, stupendous whales. To see them is to marvel - and to ask a surprisingly challenging question: Where did these amazing creatures come from? Traveling millions of years into the past, we unravel these iconic creatures' lineage - a story full of twists and turns, punctuated by dramatic events in earth history. Along the way we meet an extraordinary...

In Live Free or Die Hard, a mastermind cyber-criminal holds America hostage by wreaking havoc via the Internet. It's a great thriller, but could this imagined scenario ever happen in real life? Explore how a cyber-attack on the U.S. is a real possibility, and meet the government officials and former hackers tasked with ensuring the digital space is safe.

Perhaps no Hollywood Western captured the realities of the dangerous frontier better than True Grit. Explores this time in American history and how Rooster Cogburn and Mattie's encounters with hangings, shootouts, and kidnappings would have been part and parcel with life in the Wild West.

On November 22, 2013, it will be 50 years since the death of President John F. Kennedy. It tells the story of what happened on that tragic day through the memories of people who played a part in those extraordinary events and whose lives were touched forever by what happened. Some have not spoken before. The minute-by-minute story of the death of a president is told through rarely seen film and photographs shot on the tragic day.

Join Elizabeth McGovern as she takes an in-depth look at the young American heiresses whose real life stories inspired the drama Downton Abbey. This series takes you from the late 1800s, when daughters of America's new industrial millionaires marry into the money-strapped British aristocracy, to the 20th century, when a new kind of American Princess wields power not through wealth, but through character, style, and wit.

The Star-Spangled Banner is known by all, treasured for its powerful melody and stirring lyrics. And yet, only about 40% of U.S. citizens know all the words.

Braveheart won five Academy Awards and made William Wallace, a 13th century Scottish warrior, an unforgettable Hollywood character. But how historically accurate is the film?